Category: 19th century

Sometimes, forgettable incidents in history refuse to bow down and be overlooked. One way this happens is when the seriousness of the incident is pushed aside by a silly but memorable title. Enter the Pastry War of the 1830s. Otherwise known as the First Franco-Mexican War – but who would have remembered that? – this […]

William Crockford was born in 1776, in a run-down area of London called Temple Bar. His father was a fishmonger, like his father before him, and Crockford carried on in the trade for a while. This being the 1700s, and his family being dirt-poor, he was given very little education. By every imaginable standard, he […]

This week, over 250 years ago, Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord was born. Talleyrand (the man in the flowing white wig stood directly behind the table) was a French politician and diplomat who served under, and later conspired against, Napoleon.

Today, millions of Americans will go to the polls and vote for the next President of the United States. A lot of people have called this election the craziest in American history, and in some ways they might be right. But unless Clinton dies before the day is up, or Trump loses and gets his revenge by shooting a Cabinet […]